Just the other week I was walking around St Andrews and I bumped into a pastor friend here in town. We stopped to chat for a minute and he asked me what I think of P.O.D.’s new album. WHAT?! There’s a new album?? is what immediately went through my head. And so I ran back to my office and immediately downloaded The Awakening.
If you recall, last time P.O.D. created an album they did something they had never done before—dropped some F Bombs. I wrote a post about the justification for this a while back, which you can read here. I was curious to see if they were going to do some more of this (though it seems that they realized that launching F Bombs comes at a cost, esp. since their album was pulled from Christian stores, since their album contains no swear words at all).
Now P.O.D. was my favorite band in my jr. high and early high school days and they were responsible for introducing me to the wider world of metal. For that I am eternally grateful. I’ve been keeping up with them every now and again and have purchased all of their albums since high school even though I’m not nearly the fan I once was. Even though they’re not really my thing anymore I was shocked that I never heard anything about this album! Then I wondered, is it because the album is rubbish?
When the first track came on I noticed the eerie use of sound bites from evangelists and politicians to create a dystopian vibe. I was neither thrilled nor put off by this feature, but once the main riff kicked in I was hooked! I was reminded of all the times that P.O.D.’s albums just came out flat, but this one starts strong. In fact, as I was listening to the first track that initial time I was thinking to myself that if the rest of the album was along the lines of this track it could possibly rival Satellite or Fundamental Elements of South Town as one of their best offerings. I kept thinking about how the initial track, “Am I Awake” lacks all of the typical things that I usually don’t like in a song by P.O.D.
But then, as the track was coming to a close, I heard the sound of an alarm clock. Oh I get it, the song is called “Am I Awake.” That’s lame, but whatever. And then a male voice can be heard, “am I dreaming?”
Oh gosh. This better not happen again.
Then the next song comes on and it contains many of the typical things I don’t love about P.O.D.’s music. I’m a little worried at this point, and then, again, at the end of the track the male voice appears, along with other voices. And then I realized, the whole album is going to be full of voice actors…
And I was right. And it’s really bad. To be crystal clear, this is the lamest feature of any album that I have ever heard in my entire life. And on top of that, the music itself is almost complete rubbish too. Together this all combines to ensure that The Awakening is the worst thing that P.O.D. has ever done.
The main feature of the music itself that I find so lousy is the lyrics. Part of this boils down to the choice of poor rhyme schemes, but also a complete lack of creativity (and I would say coherence). For example, in a song that begins with a male voice actor and a female voice actor coordinating what sounds like an affair, the refrain of the track includes a silly rhyme repetition that I just can’t get over. Sonny sings about “criminal conversations,” “illicit consultations,” “dirty explanations,” “senseless observations,” and “villainous ventilations.” It appears that Sonny just wrote down whatever he could think of that slightly smacks of promiscuity or betrayal in keeping with the rhyme scheme. But in doing so he makes it very unclear what he’s even singing about or how it relates to the situation. So I just wondered, why stop there with those examples? Did his brainstorming list also include things like—solicitous salutations, meticulous mastications, or centripetal constipations? I wonder.
The other serious problem I have with the album is the song “Rise of NWO.” This track is meant to be apocalyptically charged. There are several incoherent references to images from Daniel and Revelation coupled with general dystopian language and conspiracy-theory type fears. Now, if there’s one thing I do not appreciate about pop Christianity it’s the eschatology. But when you couple silly apocalypticism with my other pet peeve about pop Christianity you’ve gone and created my least favorite song ever. My other pet peeve is the way that some Christians perpetuate a bifurcation between science and religion (see my review of Ray Comfort’s anti-evolution video). I honestly think this is one of the most gospel destroying things that Christians can do. Note how Sonny brings in science into his apocalyptic song. Sonny sings:
…Souls sold at the cross roads.
Bar Codes.
Evolution,
Maybe the Pope Knows?
Mind-altering Population Control…
This is a quick bi-section from one of the verses in the song to give you a slight sense of context (though as I’ve said it’s all mostly incoherent and strung together in a lowest common denominator sort of way). In the light of the references throughout the song to the Mark of the Beast, the false priest, 666, etc, it is very clear, if you’re familiar with Left Behind eschatology, what those “Bar Codes” refer to. Now, lumped into this cryptic song about vague evil and its growing power, we find a reference to evolution and to the Pope’s knowledge of it. This is undoubtedly an allusion to the fact that the Pope has publicly stated that he affirms evolution (see here and here). I suspect, as well, in the light of the eschatological images, that P.O.D. is doing more than simply shaming evolution for being Catholic. It would not surprise me at all if this reference to the Pope, and his approval of evolution, is mentioned because of certain Protestant eschatologies that link the Bishop of Rome with the Anti-Christ. Surely nothing villianizes evolution more than to throw down the double-whammy: it’s Catholic and Satanic! Now I don’t care what Sonny or any other Christian thinks about creation and evolution, but the perpetuation of a science vs. religion dichotomy through villianization of mainstream science is simply lamentable. It’s not going to bring people to Jesus.
If I was back in high school I’d probably find some way to appreciate The Awakening. No doubt I would have put the whole album on GarageBand and edited out the voice actors. Because, Lord knows, I would not have driven around Las Vegas with my metal head hommies listening to the uncut version. I can just imagine this scenario with high schoolers driving around listening to The Awakening—“Uh, cool jams Nicholas, but I’d prefer my music to be interrupted by radio commercials than by clips from Adventures in Odyssey.”
So when you add it all up, this album is just terrible. The lyrics are lame, the voice acting is lame, and even musically it’s nothing to shout about. But, no doubt, I’ll be waiting for the next one, P.O.D. I wish I knew how to quit you!
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